La Rochelle win big but Bourgarit set for long layoff after serious injury

La Rochelle's French hooker Pierre Bourgarit  Photo by XAVIER LEOTY/AFP via Getty Images)

Top 14

La Rochelle’s Pierre Bourgarit will miss France’s Autumn Nations Series and is very unlikely to be fit for the Six Nations after suffering a serious leg injury midway through his side’s 49-25 victory over Pau at rain-swept Stade Marcel Deflandre.

Head coach Ronan O’Gara estimated that La Rochelle will be without the international hooker’s services for ‘four-to-six months’, after he fractured his left fibula in a tackle by former team-mate Remi Picquette at the end of the first half.

Bourgarit was just three matches into his return from a shoulder injury suffered last January against Leicester in the Champions Cup.

Tighthead Uini Atonio, after his first outing of the season, said: “We’re happy to win, [but] it's always sad to see one of our brothers go to hospital. The most important thing is to support him.” Dillyn Leyds scored three of his side’s eight tries as the Rochelais overpowered and outplayed the visitors in a surprisingly expansive game given the conditions.

Atonio added: “When we saw the rain, we thought it would be tight, that there would be a lot of scrums, but our backs played well. We started the match with a lot of determination.” 

In what could be taken as a warning to the rest of the Top 14, he added: “This is only the third game of the season. We’re starting to feel like a team that wants to keep the ball alive.” 

Bordeaux attack coach Noel McNamara must love coming into work at Bordeaux every day, such is the quality of the players he has to work with. Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud both scored hat-tricks as McNamara’s backs ripped visitors Racing 92 apart – scoring eight tries to Racing’s five en route to a 52-34 victory, despite finishing the match with 13 on the pitch.

Former Munster centre Antoine Frisch is set to make his Top 14 debut for Toulon on Sunday at Stade Francais, two months after scoring on his first senior international outing for France in Argentina this summer.

It was a historic weekend at Vannes, as the promoted ProD2 champions scored their first-ever Top 14 win, beating Lyon 30-20 in front of a passionate full-house at Stade de la Rabine. Alex Arrate’s 73rd-minute try settled matters, after Leo Berdeu had kicked the visitors to within three points.

If there’s an early pattern to the season for Jeremy Davidson’s Castres, it’s in the late drama they’re inflicting on fans. They beat Racing 92 with an after-the-hooter try in their opening game; then lost at Toulon to a 78th-minute conversion from Enzo Herve last weekend. On Saturday, replacement loosehead Louis Guerois-Galisson scored their bonus-point try in a 27-12 win over bottom-of-the-table Perpignan in the 84th minute of a wind-assisted match at Stade Pierre Fabre.

Clermont put last weekend’s loss at Racing 92 behind them with a 26-10 bonus-point home win over Bayonne – the fifth time in a row they’ve picked up a try-scoring bonus at home. The times are clearly a-changing at Stade Marcel Michelin.

Eight months to the day after his last outing against Bath in the Champions Cup, France international backrow Anthony Jelonch returned to action off the bench as a heavily-rotated Toulouse held creatively stunted hosts Montpellier at bay to maintain their winning start to the season with an 11-20 victory on the road.

The reigning champions are now three points clear at the top of the table with three wins from their opening three matches. Forget words. That’s a warning by itself.